Chicken katsu curry is one of my most favourite things to eat in recent Years. I thought katsu was a type of curry, but apparently the ‘katsu’ element to the dish simply means a cutlet of meat that is breaded and fried, like the crispy chicken and the sauce is a Japanese curry sauce that drenches it. Combine this with a seeded brioche bun and a zingy rainbow coleslaw and you’ve got yourself a super awesome burger, which can be air fried or baked in the oven for a healthier twist, but whatever you choose, you’ll love this! It also turns out Burger King have just introduced a chicken katsu curry burger, this is a bit different to this version, but you could probably adapt it to clone it fairly simply!
How to make a chicken katsu curry burger
The great thing about this recipe is that you can make it well in advance – the burger sauce, chicken once breaded and coleslaw can be kept in the fridge / freezer in some instances to get ahead of time.
Additionally, there’s also lots of chucking it in a bowl, so that’s what we’ll do, keep it simple. Start by getting the chicken breasts and bashing them gently on a worktop between 2 sheets of clingfilm on a chopping board, don’t whack them too thin, just level them out a bit. Place in a mixing bowl with the buttermilk, stir to coat and ensure the chicken is covered, place cling film on top and chill for a minimum of 1 hour, ideally if you can leave it overnight, that’ll be even better.
To make the rainbow coleslaw, combine all the ingredients together in a bowl, season with salt and pepper a little and again, cover with clingfilm and keep chilled, you’ll have a good amount left for a salad with other meals for a day or 2 after, it’s very tasty.
For the katsu sauce, again add all the ingredients in a bowl, mix well and tweak to your liking, if you want to make it sweeter, add honey, zingy, add lime etc, play around with it, but make sure it’s all combined and again chill in the fridge wrapped in cling film.
One more thing you can make ahead is breading the chicken, so once it’s been in the buttermilk for an hour or overnight (your call!), have some bowls ready, one with the egg, beaten and another with the panko and plain flour mixed together. Lift the chicken out of the buttermilk and scrape off any excess, dunk in the egg, then lift into the panko breadcrumbs, covering the chicken in the panko on top. Do this with both chicken breasts. If you want you can now freeze the breaded chicken or if not lets make this thing!
Warm the oil in a deep pan (or fryer, or use an air fryer / oven), heat the oil to 180c and fry the chicken for a solid ten minutes, the colour will change quickly, but you want to make sure the chicken is cooked through so it will need a little longer, ten minutes or just over will do it. Place on kitchen towel, allow to cool for a moment, then slice into strips.
Toast the buns of the burger if you want by warming a frying pan with no oil over a medium heat then cooking the buns until charred – a few minutes.
Build the burger with some curry sauce on the base of the bun, then a big pile of rainbow coleslaw, katsu slices, more curry sauce, coriander on top, a little squeeze of lime juice, then the lid on top. Absolutely outstanding, eat asap!